Tidy knots are faster

The key pathway by which viruses "attack" consists in releasing viral DNA into the infected cell, taking over the host cell's transcription mechanisms and using them to reproduce itself.

In order to fight or exploit to our benefit the action of viruses, scientists are trying to understand this process in detail. A group of researchers – one of whom from SISSA – has studied the timescale of DNA "ejection" (how long it takes and what is the precise sequence of events), and found that it depends on the degree and manner of entanglement of the double strand of DNA inside the virus.